Nicaraguan Bishops Attempt to Restart Mediation Between Government and Protesters

Students carry candles during a protest in Managua on April 27, 2018. (Photo by Inti Ocon/AFP/Getty Images)

NICARAGUA: Yesterday, the Episcopal Conference of Catholic bishops met with President Daniel Ortega to restart talks aimed at finding a way to put an end to antigovernment protests that have rocked the country since mid April. No formal plan was reached as Ortega requested a “period of reflection” to consider the bishops’ proposal, which was not made public. The Nicaraguan Episcopal Conference had called off ongoing talks last week after a Mother’s Day march where 16 were killed.

HEADLINES FROM THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE

NORTH AMERICA

UNITED STATES: Asylum-seekers at the U.S.-Mexican border are having to wait unusually long times to be received by immigration officials. Instead of the few hours that it normally takes, people are waiting for days or weeks. Asylum requests have steadily risen in the past few years but there is no clear explanation for the sudden increase in wait times, which are only comparable to 2016 when the arrival of thousands of Haitians at the border check point in San Diego overwhelmed its capacity.

THE CARIBBEAN

DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: A vote will be held today to elect the new rotating members of the United Nations Security Council and the regional group of Latin America and the Caribbean has proposed the Dominican Republic to replace Bolivia as its representative. This will be the first time that the Caribbean nation occupies the seat.

CENTRAL AMERICA

GUATEMALA: Authorities have stopped searching for survivors of the Volcán de Fuego eruption because too much time has passed and finding anyone still alive is highly improbable, and because conditions in the area (still-hot volcanic material and rains that could cause mudslides) make the endeavor too risky. Anguished locals have decided to search themselves for missing family members despite the authorities’ warnings not to enter the disaster zone.

Meanwhile, Guatemalan prosecutors have ordered a probe on whether there was criminal negligence on the part of authorities who failed to evacuate people before the disaster struck. The national institute for seismology and volcanology says it issued warnings and accused the civil emergency authority, Conred, of not acting upon them. Conred’s Twitter feed shows that three hours before the explosion it had said it wasn’t yet necessary to evacuate, but the organization says it did issue alerts but they were ignored.

BRAZIL: National oil company Petrobras auctioned four offshore pre-salt oil fields on Thursday. Although there were fears that the recent trucker’s strike over the price of gas would scare off international investors, this was not the case and multinational oil companies invested $798 millionto explore three of the four fields (there were no bids on the fourth). During the strike Petrobras’ stock had plunged more than 20 percent.

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